An Old Ally (One-Shot)
by MadeInNowhere
Summary: Another request for Skye Prower 2016. When Tails and the gang get attacked by Eggman and some powerful robots, things look dire. But what happens when an old friend from Tails' past joins the fight? Read and review. Please, no flames.


**DISCLAIMER: Do I have to? Ugh... fine. I don't anything about Sonic The Hedgehog, as he is his own man. All rights go to Sega and the puppeteers that drove them out of the console business in the first place. This one-shot be mine, even though it's loosely based on the Sonic Boom episode, It Takes A Village To Defeat A Hedgehog. However, there won't be copied dialogue as this whole thing is off the top of my head.**

 **And here we are once again with another one of these! I say that like I'm complaining, but I'm honestly having fun. This will be my second to last one before focusing on Foxhunt and Love And War. One more after this, then I am done! Finito! No more requests, except for one that Skye requested but he's cool with waiting on it! Oh, and he requested this one too. I hope that you all enjoy the fruits of my labour.**

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On a sunny day at Seaside Island, our heroes were all relaxing at the Meh Burger as usual... with the exception of Tails, who had decided to take a snack to go to the library. He did have a reason for being there, but for now, he was struggling with a choice.

"Hmm..." Tails looked over the books before him at the library, bouncing between two in front of him. "Do I want a quantum mechanics book? Or a string theory book? Ah... so much to choose from..."

"What's wrong?" asked Zooey, walking over.

"Oh, Zooey!" Tails said, getting shushed by the librarian for his loud and sudden outburst. "I, um... I'm trying to pick a book to help me keep my brain sharp." He gestured to one in his hand. "I already have a robotics thing here."

"Why are you taking the robotics book?" Zooey asked.

"Well, it's just to help prepare for Eggman," Tails explained. "There's only so far that me and my friends can stretch ourselves when it comes to helping people, so I figured why not get some extra help in?"

"Hmm," Zooey smiled. "Smart idea from my smart little fox," she said, scratching his ears.

"Hey..." Tails blushed. As he was petted, his tails began spinning around, and he flew up a bit, accidentally dropping his robotics book and causing a small thud.

"Shh!" the librarian hissed.

Zooey shook her head at the librarian before bringing Tails back to the ground and getting his book for him. "So, which of the other ones are you going to pick?" she asked.

"Hmm... string theory, I think," Tails said, grabbing the book in question. "I'm always interested in how the universe works and such. It'll be fun to keep my brain busy with something like that."

"Smart, cute, and brave," Zooey giggled. "How did I get so lucky?"

Tails chuckled nervously. "Um... want to read with me?"

Zooey simply nodded, and Tails took her by the hand, going to a nearby table with her. They both sat next to each other, and Tails opened the string theory book up first, fascinated at the illustrations and descriptions, becoming amazed at the details on the universe.

"Wow..." Zooey said, equally as amazed.

Tails smiled. "You know, I have a huge telescope back home. Did you want to stop by tonight and look at the stars with me?"

"Only if you teach me what they all mean," Zooey giggled.

Tails smiled again. "I'd be more than happy-"

Then the was an explosion outside, shaking the library its core. Tails and Zooey managed to stay upright, and the former looked around for any damage before peering out of the window, seeing none other than Eggman and three large robots, along with his usual smaller army of robots.

The yellow fox turned to Zooey. "Got to save the island again. Sorry."

Zooey smiled, picking up Tails' books. "I'll get these checked out for you and take them to your place."

Before Tails could argue, Zooey kissed him on the cheek. Tails blushed and quickly turned to head out the door of the library, dodging some laser fire as he left. He spotted his other friends, rushing over to them.

"Hey, guys," he said.

"Oh, hey there," Sonic replied. "Enjoying some light reading whilst you were snacking?"

"That was the plan," Tails said, "but then an Eggman had to appear."

"An Eggman?" Eggman replied. "What, are there alternate universe versions of me? Because if so... that's just confusing."

"Shut it, Egg Face!" Sonic said. "You're making a loud ruckus for the people trying to read!"

"I apologise," Eggman said. "I'll just have to silence all of you, in that case. Robots, attack!"

Several of them moved towards the group, separating them. Knuckles was amongst five crab robots, two of which moved to attack from behind. Knuckle managed to grab one in front of him, swinging it to smash the other two away. He then ripped off the robot's claws and impaled the last two robots with them, wiping his hands before dodging a huge laser beam.

"Whoa!" the red echidna exclaimed, looking up. He saw a tall, lean looking robot, mostly black and red in colour, aiming a smoking hand at Knuckles. "I don't suppose that you want a high-five?" His answer was a high-pitched whirring sound, and the robot tried to blast him again, but Knuckles evaded. "Didn't think so!" he said.

Elsewhere, Sticks had just returned a boomerang to her hand, cutting off a robot's head. She looked up at two bee bots, and then turned to see Amy, who had just smashed three crab bots into pieces. Sticks put her fingers in her mouth to whistle for Amy, who nodded. She rushed over, and held her hammer up. Sticks jumped on the head of the hammer, using it to spring herself up to the bee robots, taking them both out before landing.

Knuckles had found himself rolling away from the large laser robot again, and was tricked into going the opposite way, causing him to join the two girls as they were fighting off more grunt robots.

"Um... Knuckles..." Amy said. "Why are you here?"

"Because there's a big robot blasting lasers everywhere," Knuckles replied, acting as if the question was stupid.

"If you think that's bad, wait until you see the slightly smaller robot with rocket fists and napalm!" Eggman said. "In fact, Rocket-Bot, join Laser-Bot for the attack!"

"You really need better names for your machines," Sonic said.

"This guy once invented a robot that fired ballots for public voting," Tails said, swinging his tails to knock a robot away. "If you're expecting super high quality each time, then you continue to overestimate how smart Eggman can be."

"That really does hurt my feelings, you know," Eggman replied. "Also, stop hacking my computers and looking at my failed designs."

"Stop making your computers so easy to hack thanks to their own failed designs," Tails retorted.

Eggman grunted, firing blasts from his own airship, causing Sonic and Tails to dodge to opposite sides. Sonic found himself amongst some bee bots, and he used his jumping skills and speed to cut through them. He stayed in the air to hit another one when a laser blast knocked him back down to the ground, causing him to clutch at his torso in pain.

"Okay... that smarts..."

Knuckles quickly leapt into action, trying to attack Laser-Bot, but a rocket fist from Rocket-Bot knocked him into a nearby wall. Amy and Sticks saw this, about to attack in kind, when Amy was tripped over, looking to see a group of metallic tentacles around her stomach Before she could move, the tentacles emitted a painful shock. Sticks tried to help, but found herself grounded by the same tentacles, also being shocked.

Tails looked around as his friends were all hurt, and shook his head. "Eggman, let my friends go!"

"I think that it's a bit too late for negotiations, Tails!" Amy said, getting another shock.

Tails used the whip from his communicator to swipe at Eggman. "Hey! Let them go!"

"What are you going to do if I refuse?" Eggman chuckled. "By the way, I refuse!"

Tails growled, flying up and quickly moving to attack Eggman, but a laser beam stopped him in his tracks, causing him to fall back to the ground. He tried to get back up, but saw Rocket-Bot preparing a bomb, ready to throw it at Tails. The robot released it, the bomb flew through the air...

And then it just disappeared.

"Wait... what?" Eggman said, looking around. "What was that?"

"Beats me..." Orbot said.

"Maybe it was magic!" said Cubot.

"Ah!" Eggman replied. "I forgot that you guys were in my ship! And now that I'm aware of your presence, I'm considerably more miserable and confused!"

"Then allow me to clear the air!" said a voice.

Tails' ears flickered as he recognised that voice, and he turned to see a mysterious figure holding the bomb that was meant for Tails. He tossed the bomb up and down in his hands, stepping out of where he was to reveal a familiar face from Tails' past.

"Shadow?" the two-tailed fox asked. "You're... you're here?"

"Thought I'd drop by and say hi," Shadow said.

"Why isn't he blowing up?" Eggman asked.

"I dunno," Cubot shrugged. "Hey! Hedgehog that isn't Sonic or Amy! Why aren't you exploding into pieces yet?"

"Oh, because I disarmed the bomb," Shadow said. "Would you like me to rearm it?"

"Um... I guess so?" Eggman replied.

"Good," Shadow said.

He shifted the bomb in his hands and reactivated it before throwing it straight at Rocket-Bot. The large robot caught it, but the bomb ticked on contact and beeped loudly before exploding, causing the robot's hands to explode as well.

"Huh," Shadow said. "Didn't know if that would work."

"Grr..." Eggman growled. "And I thought that one hedgehog was already enough trouble. Now I've got two to worry about!"

"Three if you count Amy, sir," said Orbot.

"Oh, yeah," said Eggman. "Her too."

"Wow," Shadow said. "Can you believe this chauvinistic pig?"

"It's just disgraceful," Tails smiled, standing up from the ground. "I think that we should let the ladies teach this guy a lesson."

"Let's get rid of the robots first," said Shadow, turning to Laser-Bot. "Hey, you walking light show! I'm down here! Hit me if you can!"

Tails chuckled at his friends taunting, but it did work as the lanky robot started blasting at Shadow. The black and red hedgehog used his speed to dodge the robot, and eventually approached the machine's legs, slipping around them and using a quick rolling attack to free Sonic.

"Thanks!" said Sonic. "I'll take out the tall one! You and Tails rescue the others!"

"Got it!" Shadow said.

Sonic looked up to Laser-Bot and rushed forwards to dodge a beam, making sure that the robot had its eye on him. Sonic then smirked and ran around it, zipping diagonally through its legs back and forth, causing the robot to get confused and fire randomly. Soon, the robot fired close enough to its own feet to knock itself over, and Sonic jumped up and rolled into a ball, smashing through its chest area to destroy it.

Shadow, meanwhile, was focusing on Rocket-Bot. Its hands were blown up, which made the fight easier, but it still tried to attack Shadow, and for all of his speed, Shadow wasn't strong enough to take it on directly. So, he backed away as the large robot was charging towards him, getting close enough to Knuckles to free him. Knuckles nodded his thanks as Shadow did a quick spin dash to cut through the robotic arms holding them down.

"That's Squid-Bot hurt too!" said Shadow.

"I didn't even say its name!" Eggman said. "I could have called it something else. You never know!"

"Did you call it something else?" asked Amy.

"I didn't..." Eggman admitted. "But that doesn't mean that I can't make them attack you!"

The two remaining robots then moved to attack, with Rocket-Bot still focused on Shadow. Shadow turned to Knuckles and nodded. The red echidna nodded back, digging underground as Shadow let himself get chased. He ran behind the robot quickly, causing it to turn around and chase him, only for its feet to get caught in a pit dug by Knuckles. The red echidna then emerged from his pit and smashed the robot's head in with his fists.

Then Amy and Sticks were left with Squid-Bot. The bot's tentacles lashed all around to try and attack Amy and Sticks unpredictably, but the two girls managed to block off the attacks with their weapons. That was until the robot had managed to ensnare Sticks once more. In retaliation, Amy smashed her hammer on the ground, causing the robot to fall backwards and let Sticks go. Sticks then took Amy's hammer for herself, smashing the robot's chest for the win.

"Well, that's all of them," said Sonic.

Sticks handed Amy her hammer back. "You want to send Eggman packing? I didn't take as much offence to what he said, considering that it was mostly about you."

Amy replied by jumping up and smashing Eggman's airship with her hammer, sending it flying away before she herself landed back down. "That felt good." She then turned to Shadow. "And as for you... Shadow, right?"

"I am indeed," the black and red hedgehog replied.

"Thank you," said Amy. "But what are you doing here?"

"Well, Tails and I are good buddies from a while back," Shadow said. "We still talk to each other online sometimes. And he has a special communicator for me just in case things get super messy with Eggman."

"You've fought Eggman before?" Sonic asked.

"No, but Tails told me all about him," Shadow said. "That's how I know about you guys too."

"What do you know about us?" Sticks asked.

"Well, I know that you're paranoid and a bit kooky."

"Who else knows?!" Sticks replied, earning some laughs. "I'm being serious!"

"Eh, just ignore that," Tails said. "Thanks for you help."

"No problem," Shadow said, shaking Tails' hand before giving him a hug. "I owed you that one."

"You saved our lives, remember?" Tails smiled as the hug broke. "If there's anything that we can do for you, let us know."

"Is it okay with them?" Shadow asked.

"Like Tails said, you saved us," said Sonic. "That makes you a good guy in my book."

Shadow smiled. "Thank you. And, come to think of it, I'd like some food. I got hungry on the way here."

"We've got a really bad restaurant that we go to sometimes," said Knuckles.

"Meh Burger?" Shadow asked.

"Man, Tails really did tell you a lot," Sonic smirked.

"Tails!" called a voice.

The yellow fox turned to see Zooey rushing up to him, and she gave him a hug. Tails hugged back, blushing a bit before clearing his throat. He rubbed the back of his head nervously as Zooey held his free hand, turning to see Shadow.

"Hmm... you're new," she noted.

"I'm Shadow," the black hedgehog said. "I'm a friend of Tails."

"Well, any friend of Tails is a friend of mine!" Zooey said. "Has he told you about me?"

"Well, he tries to," Shadow said, "but I call him out for having a crush on you, and then he tries to change the subject."

"Shadow..." Tails playfully moped.

They all shared some laughter again before Sonic spoke. "To Meh Burger we shall go!"

The others all agreed, heading for the fast food place in question. As they walked, Tails was thankful not only to have Shadow help them, but to have his friends be as accepting of him as they were. Together, they'd be a stronger force with Shadow on the team when it came to taking out Eggman too.

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 **So that's another one done! Boy, am I glad to be knocking these things down one by one! One more to go, then it's off to two new stories and such. I hope that you all enjoyed this, because I liked writing this one a lot. It's nice to be given more free reign and such. I'll see you all in the next one. Take care, and stay tuned.**


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